Roan Mountain at the top is just over 6,000 feet tall. The trail areas zigzag between Tennessee and North Carolina. My favorite hiking spot is the three balds. This is about a four and a half mile hike round trip. However, it has a few steep places with uneven ground, and the top round peaks out around 6000, so you better be in decent shape when you walk it. If you are not just plan on making lots of stops on the way there and back. Anytime of year there is beautiful, although in the summer is when you will really see the green grasses.

On the other side there are the rhododendron gardens and a trail that is about a mile and a half that ends out on a point overlooking a lush valley. You can either drive part of the trail or walk the entire thing. Once you reach the point you can relax and take in the wonderful vista of the valley.

There are lots of hiking trails on the mountain, including the appalacian trail. So if you are a hiker or a photo hobbiest you will find plenty to do. I've also found plenty of birds, squirrels, and deer in the area to enjoy watching, and of course bear.

I personally would recommend going in the later summer early fall for hiking. The weather is a little cooler at that time, which comes in handy if you are going exploring near the bottom as well as the top. I would also recommend the trip during the changing of the leaves. Anytime you can make it to the Blue Ridge in the Fall is a good experience.

When I go to Roan Mountain I like to reside at a little place I like to refere to as Craig's cabin. As the picture at the top of my blog shows, it's a place with an incredible view. If you have ever read the Hobbit, it always reminds me of what the Misty Mountains would look like. This is a private cabin that sits at just over 4,000 feet above sea level. Although it is cooler there in the middle of summer, it's still quite warm and humid.

I have found Roan Mountain to be ideal in the early spring and the fall, as is most of the Blue Ridge. Both seasons offer cold mornings, perfect for slow cups of coffee and time for reflection. As the day progresses it gets warmer, but still allows for flannel shirts, my personal favorite when in the mountains. Also, while I love wildlife, instects do not really fit into my profile of wildlife. I have found the transistion seasons offer some of the best wildlife minus insect moments.

My favorite memory of the cabin was when I was literally on top of a black bear and did not know it. This past year the plants the bears eat did not fair well, so the bears came to a new food source, the cabins. We had been warned they were around, but did not realize when they preferred to feed. I was out on the deck our first night on my cell phone describing this horrible smell I kept smelling to my wife back home. I kept looking down the deck stairs and listening for the bear. I eventually heard something go running off in the trees from the cabin. I come to find out later that the bears prefer to climb the columns of the deck, which sits a good 20 feet from the ground below. It appears the bear was hanging on the post waiting for me to leave and I was, at times, standing directly over it. I'm just glad I chose not to put my hand down on the railing while I was standing there.

It's time for me to begin a series on Roan Mountain, my favorite "local" spot. It's about 3 and a half hours from where I live, but but totally worth the drive. The photo links are located to the right if you haven't already seen them.

Roan Mountain borders North Carolina and Tennessee. It is located here. If you are coming from the Charlotte, southern Piedmont area, it is worth taking 321 up through Blowing Rock, N.C. and Boone N.C. The drive from this direction is absolutely beautiful. You'll get a great view of the Appalachian Mountains and Grandfather Mountain. If you have 3 hours or so, you can drive to Grandfather Mountain. I would recommend an afternoon, and plan on hiking. To get to Roan Mountain you can either go Linville or Banner Elk. I prefer Banner Elk. While it has grown over the years, it's still small and touristy. A pleasant place to drive through, or to stop and kill a couple hours enjoying the sites. The road beyond Banner Elk is an older two lane mountain road. It's not fast, but it's an enjoyable ride.

Once you reach Roan Mountain you can visit the State Park or rent one of the cabins on the mountain, or if you are fortunate like me, you have a friend whose parents own a cabin. The photo at the top of the Blog is from their back deck. I'll write more on Roan Mountain my next post, but in the meantime let me encourage you to read the state park website.

I'm going to wrap up India today by posting all the remaining posts. I can sum up our experience by saying that we preferred the country, as opposed to the cities, but we prefer the country anywhere we go. This is basically because cities are dirty. You have a lot of people in a convined space, the more people you have, the dirtier it gets. So you won't see me promoting city and high density living. I prefer my privacy and space. That being said, here are the other posts:


Safely Home
We arrived safely home at 8pm last night. The trip was long and boring, in other words perfect.

Upon arriving and catching up on things I came across something I felt related to some of the postings I plan to do on my post India perspective. In the western press's never ending desire to destroy our history and culture, I saw where they are trying to combine fiction and fact, a.k.a. the De Vinci Code, and say that they have found the tomb of Jesus and possibly his family. This brings up something I learned while in India, the subject of faith.

I asked someone after leaving a temple in India why they worship the idols, out of curiousity as opposed to accusation. They said they represented the different gods that were incarnations of the Hindu three person god. As I thought on this I thought about my own religion, Christianity, and other religions as well and came to the following conclusions.

Whether people want to admit it or not, faith is universal, and we all have to decide where we put our faith. Throughout history, man has preferred to have faith in something he can see and touch. The Jewish people in the old testament struggled with this very thing. The Christian church as well as struggles with idols or icons, such as "saints" you can pray to for certain needs, as opposed to God himself. Other people like to put faith in money, mammon, because they can see and feel it, and get immediate results. You may have faith in Buddah's teachings, Jehovah, Allah, or be polythiestic. You may say to me, I have no faith because science is able to show what is true, which means you have faith in the scientific method. We all have faith, and most of us carry multiple faiths. Such as I have faith in my wife, and faith in Christ. Faith occurs on many levels.

I came away from India realizing that what faith is, and why I believe in Christ. I also came away realizing why people have a tough time believing in Christ as this faith is based on God the father, who you can not see, Christ, who is resurrected and with God, and the Holy Spirit, who lives in believer's hearts and is not seen. It is a faith that in many ways is the opposite of what people want. Something they can feel and touch. Something that can comfort their body as well as their soul. So you have people, like the press, who try and attack the faith of those who believe in the invisible God. Also, I have come to realize that faith is faith. Which is to say, you can't prove it. You can present your reasons for your faith, but faith in and of itself is an individual decision that everyone, no matter where on the planet, makes.

I am going to be posting more photos, hopefully today, of the final days of our trip. I will also be posting some of the other experiences we had while in India. It was a wonderful time, both fun and educational. It's great to be home though. It's awesome to be home with the boys, and to be back in my own bed.

February 26
Leaving for home today
We leave for North Carolina in just a few hours. 6 hours and 52 minutes to be exact before we arrive at the Chennai airport, not that I'm counting.
I was going to summarize our trip and add photos, but I've decided to wait. After being here a month I have a lot of thoughts on my trip here. Some great, some not so much. I plan to put in an update after arriving home. We appreciate everybody's prayers, and hope you will continue them until we arrive home safely.
I will say the flight from Bangalore to Chennai yesterday was wonderful. We got to see India from the air, which gave us a great perspective of places we had seen from the train. We are looking forward to seeing everyone very soon.

February 23
Photo backups
I have posted some of our photos, but not all. If you would like to see all of the photos taken, you can find them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ncgarymcpherson

Please be aware these photos, like the ones posted are not cleaned up, and in some cases flipped on their sides. However, if you would like to look through them all, please feel free.



Hunkered down in Mysore
We toured Mysore today, and saw a temple, a cathedral, and a single stone made into a very large bull. I will be posting the pictures later. We also received some news. There is a massive strike tomorrow and nothing will be running in the city. We have been instructed to stay within the hotel compound. Normally the protest are pretty peaceful, although the last one Mysore had did have some isolated incidents. I believe we are perfectly safe. The main concern is the 25th when we travel back to Bangalore and fly to Chennai. There maybe a protests still going on in a small town. If so, we may have to leave Mysore around 4am to avoid it. We are still waiting to hear.

On the upside, I'm looking forward to an excuse to stay in the hotel for a day. I slept almost 12 hours last night and I'm still tired. I have yet to just rest and do nothing sense the week before flying to India. I came close in Coorg, but never could let myself just sit there the whole day. So I can't say tomorrow is a bad thing. In fact for me, it's a good thing. As for the protest, I have to say I side with the protestors as I understand the situation. People who are downstream of the dam here need water for their crops, the crops look really really bad. Growing up in Southern California I can certainly appreciate agriculture and the need for water. I primarily hope the protest remains peaceful and the government can find a way to meet everyone's needs. Water here is about as valuable as gold or oil.

February 22
In Mysore
Well, I have internet again. Please read through all the blog entries below. I saved them offline, so they are in reverse order, newest to oldest. Bandipur and Kabini contain all of the photos from the safari rides.

It's tough being back in the city after leaving the paradise of Coorg and the Orange County resort. Our hotel here is nice, but well, it's no resort. Donna and I are definitely not city people. I hope you enjoy the stories and pictures. India has been great thus far. It's truly a dream vacation. That being said, we are both quite tired and homesick. We are now counting down the days until we get home to our boys and home.

Even so, tomorrow we go see the palace at Mysore, and may possibly visit the zoo. Hey, we still have to see a tiger. Thanks to everyone for their prayers, keep praying. Thanks especially to everyone who has been following our adventures. It's great to know so many people care out our trip, or are at least curious.

Cobra

As you may have been able to tell, the point of this site is going to be travel. While much of what I am planning to post is our travel experiences, I want to focus mostly on what is great or not so great about different locations we have traveled to. Where I can, I'll add pictures. There are some travels we have taken where digital pictures were not possible, or we have not been able to find the old photos to scan in.

Be that as it may, I can't get ready to wrap up my India recap without re-posting my cobra story. To give this some perspective I have to share something that happened here at our quiet home last night. My wife and I were walking back to the front porch of the house from our driveway when my wife suddenly jumped. Yes, the same wife who in this story stood there fussing at me for pinching her arm with a king cobra only about a footstep away from her. She jump, I heard a large animal noise coming from the bush directly in front of us, and I yelled. I don't really know why I yelled, other than it surprised me. Out of the bush came a giant man eating house cat. That's right, I yelled in surprise because of a house cat in the dark.

With this story in mind, here again is what happened with the one animal I had hoped to come in contact with as much as the tiger.

King Cobra link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cobra

My Cobra

Today I have proven my dad wrong.  When I was young my dad would send me to get tools out of his toolbox.  For whatever reason, I could never find the stupid things.  He used to tell me that I could be standing right on top of a snake and never know it.  I found out today I would know it.

Donna and I were taking a stroll between the large pond and sugar cane fields here at the resort out to the forest to take photos of the shade coffee fields and rice paddies.  We were chatting and slowly walking when I looked down and about 6 inches from the side of my shoes was a copper/tanish tail that grew larger and larger to about the size of my thigh just above my knee, three feet from the tip of its tail.  I could see at least six feet of what had to be the largest snake I have ever seen before it disappeared in the bush.  I froze up and my knees locked.  Growing up camping in California the first rule I always learned when coming up on a snake was don't move and be quiet.  So I reached out to stop Donna while watching the back half of the snake looking for what had to be a large head.  I ended up pinching Donna's arm because I wasn't watching where I grabbed it.  She said something, I wasn't paying attention, and the snake started down the hill.  After my legs would move we finished our walk and I got my photos.  On the way back we talked to one of the security guards.  His English was not very good, but he confirmed the local king cobras here are the size and color I saw.  So I got to see my cobra, from just six inches away, but not take a picture.   Quite frankly, after seeing it, I have no desire to get that close again.  If I want a picture of one, I'll find a post card, or visit the zoo.

 I also want to say thank you to my parents for teaching me ever since I can remember how to act around snakes.  Although I was very scared, all the training and of my childhood kicked in and I made the right decisions.

 

 

More information on Coorg and the Orange County resort.

http://www.trailsindia.com/resorts.asp?Resort_id=1

The resort sits inside a beautiful coffee plantation. The packages include your meals, all of which are outstanding. We stayed in the Pool Villa. If you can afford it, I strongly recommend it. The design of the Pool Villa is open and close. The living area includes an atrium with an opening in the roof, which is covered with a screen. The bedroom has a solid door and air conditioning. So the nights are very comfortable for sleeping. I would recommend going later in the year as the water in the dipping pool can be quite chilly in February, although still tolerable. They have a sitting room where you can sit and have free coffee, and read or look over the rice paddies and sugar cane field. Even now I'm missing it.

As mentioned in my cobra story, cobra's love coffee plantations. If you are a bit of a nut like me, you might want to stroll in the earlier parts of the morning near the sugar cain and water in hopes of finding the largest, the king cobra. Even so, there are many who are normal size and just as deadly around due to the abundant water and animals Cobras are night time animals and prefer the dark. There are several signs around the plantation warning folks to stay in the lighted paths at night. I highly recommend taking heed of the signs. It's tempting at night to go stand out by the small lake in the moonlight. This is almost the exact location I saw my king cobra. Do yourself a favor, stand in the lighted path above the lake and enjoy the moon's reflection.

This combination of beauty and danger can be found in many places in the wilds of India. I guess to me this is what makes India so attractive. You can still live adventures people have written about over the centuries.

Coorg:

I have not posted anything on the travel site lately due to health reasons. I'm happy to say I am doing much better. Below is my post on Coorg.

This post was written after almost 3 very long weeks for me, 2 of them work. This place was like heaven on earth, I'll post more about that tomorrow or Thursday. It made me a big believer in resorts. I used to think these places were for spoiled people, but now realize they are the perfect getaway for when you feel exceedly stressed out and just need to get away. In our 20 years of marriage, this was the first place my wife and I were actually able to just relax.

Arrive in Coorg
We left Bandipur after one more morning safari. It was disappointing in that we saw no tigers. It was great; however, in that there were only 4 of us in a jeep this time. We stayed perfectly quiet and got up very close to the wildlife we could find. We then spent time up in an observation tower where tigers were known to appear. No tigers showed, but we did see a group of spotted deer appear from the woods, regroup in the opening and then return to the cover of the forest. I’ve included some photos of the mountain view from the tower, and our new friends.
The trip to the Orange County resort was beautiful. It’s India, it’s tough not to be beautiful. Other than driving through Mysore, all of our travel has been in the country. You see many small villages, and just like small towns in the U.S. people look when a strange car drives by. So you have to get used to being looked at as you drive through. You also have to get used to cattle who seem to live for stepping in front of cars coming down the road.
The Orange County resort is very fine, as many of my new local friends like to say. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Bible in my Villa, and several Bible verses posted on the trees in the resort. The resort posts many signs dealing with spiritual health and well being, so far I’ve recognized over half as being directly from Proverbs. The spa Donna went to for the swelling in her ankles has a “Jesus is Lord” sign posted at the top of the entry door. This is just very exciting to us because most places we have been are more Hindu focused. Don’t get me wrong, there is of course Hinduism here, but it is good to see a Christian presence as well.
There are two exciting things that have happened here for us thus far. First the spa. Donna got worked over for 2 hours with a process to decrease the swelling in her ankles, and to help the pain in her back. She returned with her back feeling much better, and her ankles were normal size! We haven’t seen her ankles look right in months at least. It is super amazing to see. The second exciting thing, for me, was seeing Donna for the first time in the Sari I bought her. I took a couple of pictures, she is a princess. I was laughing at dinner because I was in jeans and wearing a local shirt style I had bought in Chennai. I told her people were thinking, “Slacker American man.” Then they see her and say, “Oh, very smart man.”